Colombia's first renewables auction ends without winners

Image by: Green Energy Markets (www.greenmarkets.com.au).

February 27 (Renewables Now) – Colombia’s first electricity auction that sought to award 12-year contracts for the annual supply of 1.183 TWh of renewable power concluded on Tuesday without winners as the competition standards had not been met, the country’s energy ministry said.

The next auction will be held in the second quarter of 2019 before June 30, Colombian energy minister Maria Fernanda Suarez said at the press conference.

A total of 12 offers to buy and eight offers to sell electricity were cleared to participate in the first auction.

Colombia's national mining and energy planning unit UPME, which organised and live-streamed the auction, did not reveal details about the bidding projects other than that biomass, solar and wind power were the technologies that were proposed.

Regardless of the auction results, minister Suarez called the whole process a learning curve and expressed optimism about the country’s path to renewable energy. She invited the bidding companies to submit their proposals at the next auction.

Colombia, which sources 70% of its electricity from hydropower, is seeking to diversify its power mix and boost the renewables capacity to at least 1.5 GW.